'Lord of the manor' Mark Roberts loses case

A businessman who has made money by buying up ancient titles and invoking feudal laws finally lost a legal battle yesterday - this time with the Queen.

Mark Roberts, 45, has bought around 60 titles in the last decade.

But yesterday he suffered defeat when three appeal judges ruled that the Crown could claim "squatters rights" over vast tracts of the Severn estuary which could be worth many millions of pounds.

Mr Roberts, an engineer and renowned expert on Lordships of the Manor, had argued that it was wrong for the Crown to claim rights over land which he said was his under legal principles dating back to the Norman Conquest.

As Lord Marcher of Magor he claimed ownership of the sand, mud flats and river bed on the Welsh side of the river, right up to the centre of the deep water channel. The area contains valuable sand dredging beds and its worth could soar in the future should plans for tidal and wind powered electricity generation schemes go ahead.

When he tried to register his title to the land he ran into confict with The Crown Estate Commissioners, who said the Crown had been in unchallenged possession of the land for centuries - far longer than the mere 12 years needed to establish squatters rights.

In the Appeal Court, Mr Roberts, from Barry, South Wales, relied on a "supposed fundamental constitutional principle" that the Crown cannot ever claim adverse possession over a subject's land unless it can prove that its original entry onto the land, by its servants or agents, was lawful.

However, the judges disagreed and said it was "beyond doubt" that the law of adverse possession - which means anyone can lay claim to land if it has been in unchallenged possession long enough - "applies to both the Crown and citizen".

Mr Roberts was ordered to pay the substantial legal costs of the case, the amount of which will be assessed at a later date.